Evil in Genesis (Studies in Scripture and Biblical Theology)

A Contextual Analysis of Hebrew Lexemes for Evil in the Book of Genesis

Ingrid Faro

• Publisher: Lexham Press
• Year: 2021
• Print ISBN: 9781683594512
• eBook ISBN: 9781683594529
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Biblical Criticism & Interpretation

The book of Genesis recites the beginnings of the cosmos and its inhabitants. It also reveals the beginning of evil. Before long, evil infests God's good creation. From there, good and evil coexist and drive the plot of Genesis. In Evil in Genesis, Ingrid Faro uncovers how the Bible's first book presents the meaning of evil. Faro conducts a thorough examination of evil on lexical, exegetical, conceptual, and theological levels. This focused analysis allows the Hebrew terminology to be nuanced and permits Genesis' own distinct voice to be heard. Genesis presents evil as the taking of something good and twisting it for one's own purposes rather than enjoying it how God intended. Faro illuminates the perspective of Genesis on a range of themes, including humanity's participation in evil, evil's consequences, and God's responses to evil. --

1

Introduction

The most compelling conflict in monotheistic faith is the apparent incompatibility of an all-powerful and loving God allowing evil and suffering to enter and afflict the world. The problems of evil stand as a major argument against the goodness and justice of God. The presence of evil is proffered as proof against the existence of God.1 “Many theologians and philosophers of our time have reached the conclusion that the problem of undeserved suffering cannot be resolved.”2 The efforts to absolve God are massive.3 The risk of exculpating God without divinizing evil is significant.4 Yet for all that is written about evil there is surprisingly scant research on the use of evil through the first book of what has historically been a primary source document on the topic for both the Jewish and Christian faith: the book of Genesis.5 The purpose of this study is to at least partially address this void.

Following the introduction with methodology, this book has three distinct parts. Part I provides the foundational data undergirding the study, investigating the use of the main Hebrew lexeme

, and

(“evil” as adjective, noun, and verb) in Genesis.6 Part II focuses on the two word-groupings most often associated with evil (

) in Genesis, which center on sight and goodness, tracing the interplay between these concepts through each major unit in the book.7 Part III synthesizes the data and concepts into a theologically reflective narrative moving again through the entire book of Genesis.8

Part I is data heavy and may be skipped without harm to the reader who is not familiar with Biblical Hebrew or wishes to avoid what for many will be a boring overload of technical information. However, the goal is to build a foundation for discussions on the origins and pervasiveness of evil grounded in the lexical-semantic and literary-narrative use of

(evil) from the Hebrew text of Genesis.

Part II narrows in on the findings from part I: that the most common word groupings associated with evil (

) in Genesis have to do with sight and with good. These are mapped through each narrative toledot unit in Genesis.9 The toledot are recognized as “a crucial indicator of literary units” and therefore are used in this study as demarcating the major divisions, in particular the narrative toledot framework.10

Part III is a synthesis of the previous two parts, and shifts into a selective minicommentary on Genesis in light of the plot conflict and theological development of the role and meaning of evil.11

The resulting concepts are summarized into the sense and meaning of evil, culminating with a synthesis of the concept and theology of evil in Genesis.

This work concludes with a summary and brief reflections on the treatment of evil through the canon. The goal is that this process provides a substantial, exegetically grounded basis for understanding, explaining, and assessing both human and nonhuman agency and the relationship to evil with the hope of illuminating what Genesis reveals about the concept of evil, how good and evil play out, and the roles of God and humanity in their outcomes.12

Before proceeding, an important disclaimer for biblical scholars is in order along with two points of transparency, as well as a statement on the unique contribution of this book. While recognizing that the text of Genesis we have is the result of a lengthy process of gathering sources, transmission, and shaping, this study is based upon the synchronic, or “received form,” of Genesis in the Masoretic Text (MT).13 Therefore, markers of Priestly (P) or Yahwistic (J), or non-Priestly sources are generally excluded.14 Furthermore, for transparency’s sake, it must be acknowledged that although the concentration of my study is from the received form of Genesis, it must be acknowledged that, as Brevard Childs points out, as a Christian writer I do not read the Old Testament anachronistically, without taking “seriously the literature’s present function within the Christian Bible for a practicing community of faith.”15 It is not possible for any of us to sufficiently detach from our own personal contexts to maintain pure objectivity.

As a second point of transparency, when I undertook this investigation I had no preconceived expectations of what I would find. From my experience, the goodness of God was simply a theological construct. Prior to my research, the operation of good and evil appeared random at best, escaping definition in meaning or form. This perspective changed through my research of the Hebrew text, and quite to my surprise I discovered an orderliness and coherency that has reframed my thinking and perspective on life. Although this is an academic work, the questions of evil and suffering became personal. This intersection of study and application is tangible in my writing. In doing so, I am ultimately writing to the audience that Walter Brueggemann calls in his commentary on Genesis, “the listening community.”16 Although Johann Gabler dissected scholarly study from the praxis of faith into a sort of “left and right brain” within the academy, the biblical text does not lend itself to that dichotomy.17 My hope is that the preliminary findings of the present study contribute to a way forward in research as it has done in my own perspectives and life-altering response.

The distinction between the lexical work done to date on evil and the present study is that past studies I have found are confined primarily to occurrences of isolated word(s), sentences, or individual pericopes, whereas here the lexeme(s) and theme(s) are traced from collocations, to sentence, to broader context and interconnectivity throughout an entire book.18 This contextual lexical-literary approach adds depth and breadth to the understanding of the meaning, use, and significance of evil in Genesis. The findings of this investigation offer a textually grounded challenge to monistic and compatibilistic theological constructs.19 Stephen Shead thoroughly addresses the challenge, history, and a methodological approach to bridge the gap between linguistics and theology. Many of the approaches outlined in his excellent work are incorporated in my study.20

FRAMING THE DISCUSSION OF EVIL IN GENESIS

According to Gen 1–2, God created the world good and appointed humanity responsible for the task of maintaining and perpetuating the “very good” system of creation. Human beings were intended to serve as coregents in a trusting, dependent relationship with God and interdependent with each other and creation. The divine plan was the spread and perpetuation of life, abundance, and blessing for all creation. Through deception and disobedience, humanity chose to satisfy their personal desires as the alternate reality and to use creation for their own purposes apart from God.21 This set up the primary plot conflict between good and evil, between YHWH as God and anything in opposition to him and his good ways as established in creation by fiat. Human efforts to live independently from their creator set in motion the processes of death and loss. What God created as good was distorted to a wide range of understandings of evil by human autonomy. Humanity is responsible for their choices as God’s appointed representatives. Thus, evil and sin become intricately intertwined in the violation of design.22

The leading questions explored in this study are: What is evil (lexically and semantically in the biblical text of Genesis)? How is the concept of evil portrayed exegetically and literarily in the relationships between God, humanity, and the world? What does Genesis tell us theologically regarding evil? And along with these questions, who is held accountable?

A BRIEF REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE

Due to the vast amount of literature on evil in the Old Testament, this section provides a brief overview of selected topics beginning with the lexical work that has been done on the primary Hebrew lexemes for evil:

(as adjective, noun, and verb), and then a quick look at four subtopics: creation and chaos in their relationship to the origins of evil; the significance of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil; good and evil as a key motif in the literary biblical plot conflict; and the problems of evil and suffering.23

REVIEW OF LEXICAL WORK ON EVIL

In reviewing the primary lexeme for evil (

) the more significant or widely used historical lexical works are summarized first, then variations of some of the better known encyclopedic or theological lexicographies.24 Susan Neiman demonstrates in her book Evil in Modern Thought, that the event of the Lisbon tsunami-earthquake-fire was instrumental in European philosophers’ focus on the problem of evil and development of what N. T. Wright calls the now standard distinction between natural evil (e.g., tsunamis, earthquakes, hurricanes) and moral evil (e.g., terrorists, abusers, pedophiles).25 Lexicons have typically maintained this dual distinction between qualitative evil and moral/ethical evil.

For most of the last cen...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Dedication
• Contents
• Abstract
• Acknowledgments
• List of Tables
• List of Abbreviations
• Chapter 1: Introduction
• Part I: The Data
• Chapter 2: Occurrences of Evil (r' ,r'h ,r'') and Distribution of Forms in Narrative and Direct Discourse and Speech Act
• Chapter 3: Semantic Field and Range of Meaning: Paradigmatic and Syntagmatic Collocations of r' (Evil)
• Part II: The Focus: Two Key Cognitive Connections with Evil
• Chapter 4: Tracing the Relationships between Sight, Good, and Evil
• Part III: Synthesis
• Chapter 5: Following the Plot Conflict through Genesis: Conceptual and Theological Observations and Implications
• Chapter 6: Conclusion
• Excursus 1: Good versus Evil Desire in Genesis 2–3 and the Tenth Commandment
• Excursus 2: When God Takes Human Life: Corruption (shcht), Evil (r'), and Death
• Excursus 3: A Word about Theology, Ideology, and the Tree of Knowledge: In Defense of Blending Academia and Faith
• Appendix: All Occurrences of Evil r'' ,r'h ,r' in Genesis BHS MT Compared with Rahlf’s LXX and NASB English Translation
• Bibliography
• Related Bibliography
• Subject Index
• Scripture Index
• Old Testament